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Report: Cybercrime Increases when Small Business Owners Fail To Fortify Security

Increase in vulnerability is preventable

by Jennifer Hunt

9/4/2010

According a report released by Panda Security, the makers of Panda Antivirus Pro 2011 cybercrime is on the rise. The finding, based on a survey of 1,532 American businesses and 7,938 global companies, revealed that the two percent rise in cybercrime can be attributed to poor security practices.

According to Panda, 36 percent of U.S. small businesses use free security solutions that are designed for home use, 31 percent operate without anti-spam tools, 23 percent lack anti-spyware, and 15 percent have not installed a firewall.

The study revealed the points of entry for cyberattacks: 32 percent came from the Internet and infected storage devices, 21 percent came from e-mail, and 14 percent came from downloads and peer-to-peer sharing.

Fortunately, these security breaches are quite preventable if companies invest the resources into building a stronger defense. The most shocking find in Panda's study is that a whopping 29 percent of small- and medium-sized businesses didn't have any dedicated IT resources.